The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has issued a report stating that the 2019 tax filing season will likely be delayed due to IRS under staffing issues.

The IRS received $320 million to implement the changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act (TCJA), allocating $291 million it estimated would be needed for the information
technology and ancillary operations support work. TIGTA calculated it would take more
than 1.1 million labor hours based on the IRS's estimate of 542 full-time equivalent employees to implement the tax provisions contained in TCJA. The IRS plans to use current
and new employees to meet these needs. As of June 2018, 117 current and new employees
have been hired and entered on duty to meet these needs.

Due to the lengthy process to hire employees or bring contractors onboard, the TIGTA
report says positions might not be quickly filled causing risk to the timelines of the information technology updates. Delays in updating, modifying, and testing these technology
systems increases the risk of a delayed start of the 2019 filing season.